What is Rihanna’s real name? Rihanna’s birth name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. She was born on Feb. 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados. The pop superstar is the daughter of Ronald Fenty—who’s of Barbadian and Irish descent—and Monica Braithwaite, an Afro-Guyanese former accountant.
Rihanna’s parents divorced when she was 14, partially due to her father’s struggles with substance abuse, and while their troubled marriage undoubtedly made for some unhappy moments, Rihanna found solace in pop and reggae music. She began singing at the age of seven, and by 2003, she’d met influential record execs Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers and taken steps toward signing with Def Jam and shedding her full birth name in favor of the more streamlined Rihanna. SEE MORE